Bigotry...

Recently I saw an interesting article “Love Thy Neighbour: How Much Bigotry Is There Western Countries?” that examines bigotry in western countries. According to that article, the percentage of respondents who would not like neighbours who were homosexual is pretty high in majority of the countries. Take a look at the statistics:-

* Australia: 24.7
* Austria: 26.7
* Belgium: 17.5
* Canada: 17.2
* Denmark: 8.0
* Finland: 20.1
* France: 15.8
* Germany: 14.0
* Greece: 26.8
* Iceland: 7.9
* Ireland: 27.5
* Italy: 28.7
* Luxembourg: 19.2
* Netherlands: 6.2
* New Zealand: 22.3
* Norway: 14.3
* Portugal: 25.6
* Spain: 15.7
* Sweden: 6.0
* Switzerland: 19.1
* Great Britain: 24.1
* Northern Ireland: 35.9
* USA: 22.9

Isn’t that surprising? I would have thought the societies in western countries are more tolerant towards the gays but the study seems to prove otherwise. In fact, I do not need studies like this to prove bigotry exists because I can feel and sense those anti-gay sentiments wherever I go in NZ. That explains why I am still hiding in the closet. It just saves me the trouble of getting unwanted stares as well as harassments from those self-righteous bigots.

Imagine if I tell my nosy friend M that I am gay, it would be a riot. She will be wasting no time trumpeting my sexual orientation on the streets and the rest of my family, relatives and friends will be tossing their hair wailing about the "terrible misfortune". So Tom-Tom, don’t ever try to suggest me telling others that I am gay because family drama is the last thing I need right now. :p